President Muhammadu Buhari should not ask a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu, to represent him in the presidential debate, according to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar.

Atiku’s comments were in a reaction to the inauguration of the APC presidential campaign committee for the 2019 elections.

Buhari had during the inauguration on Monday, handed over the party’s campaign to Tinubu even though he (Buhari) is the chairman of the committee.

Speaking on the development, Atiku in a statement noted that “President Buhari has only attended one campaign, which was the one held in Uyo (Akwa Ibom State capital).

“He is pushing people ahead to campaign for him because his chickens have come home to roost.

“It proves what we’ve been trying to say before that Buhari doesn’t have the energy and rigour to campaign.

“If he is giving someone else the task of leading his campaign, he could have as well given his presidential ticket to someone who has the energy.

“He should not use this as an excuse to be absent from the presidential debate.

“Nigerians want someone they can question and someone who is willing to listen to them. So, he (Buhari) should take charge of his own campaign.”

The statement added that “His excuse that he doesn’t want governance to suffer is not tenable.

“In the United States, United Kingdom, France and other great countries, campaign is part of governance because it is an avenue to interact with your people.

“Hence, Buhari should not hand over his campaign to someone else.

“In the first place, if he had organised the system to be running smoothly, he would not have given this excuse.”